Gentle Malady
by Trumpeteer34
Summary: After Jervis Tetch receives some bad news, Alice learns about her employer's past. Pre-Hatter.


I do not own Jervis Tetch (aka The Mad Hatter), Alice Pleasance, or Dr. Cates. They belong to DC Comics and _Batman: The Animated Series_. This was written purely for fun.

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The day had started like any other. After a quick elevator ride to the right floor, Alice soon situated herself at her desk, ready to begin her workday. She and Jervis had shared their morning cup of tea, a ritual that they performed every morning since shortly after they had met. Her employer had retired to his laboratory and Alice had settled into her chair.

She was in the middle of typing up a report when there came a rapping at the office door. She hadn't the chance to turn her head before the door opened. A sense of dread quickly rushed over the blonde girl's form when Dr. Cates walked in. She forced a warm smile and was about to greet the woman when she noticed something about the redhead supervisor was off. The look on her face instantly sent a wave of concern flowing through Alice's body.

Alice felt her smile melt away when Dr. Cates came to a stop next to her work station. She looked down at Alice with conflicted eyes beneath a fraught brow, her mouth tightened into a nervous frown. "Is he in?" she asked in a soft voice, discretely pointing at the lab door where Jervis was working.

Alice nodded uneasily, growing more and more curious and concerned by Dr. Cates' peculiar behavior.

Dr. Cates took a worried breath and glanced back at the closed door. She lifted her chin in a confident gesture, but her eyes showed weakness. She cautiously stepped forward and, much to Alice's surprise, knocked before entering. The door was shut promptly behind her.

Alice sat in suspense, waiting to hear the normal harsh yells, the authoritative demands, their bickering, but was answered with silence. Her blue eyes lingered on the door for a few moments longer before she tried to return to the report, but her mind was elsewhere. She found herself staring at the door again, her brow knit with worry.

After a few silent minutes, the lab door finally opened. Alice made no effort to hide that she was not working; she simply stared at the threshold. Dr. Cates slowly walked out of the laboratory. The redhead and the blonde women briefly locked eyes, the supervisor giving her a sad glance before she continued toward the exit.

Blue eyes followed the redhead for a few moments before she looked back toward the laboratory's open door. What on Earth was going on?

From the darkness on the lab, Jervis emerged. He slowly stepped into the light, his face unreadable and his eyes downcast. He moved almost mechanically as he approached Alice's desk. "Alice…" he began quietly, her name sounding forced, "…may I use your telephone in private?"

Alice stared up at the Englishman with concerned eyes. He continued to stare at something else with unfocused eyes, not once looking at her. She nodded slowly. "…of course…" she answered softly. She lifted herself from her chair, abandoning the half-written report, and turned to step out of the office. Before she did, however, her eyes studied Jervis a final time. She reluctantly turned and walked toward the exit. As she shut the door, she heard him lift the phone and hesitate before dialing a number.

She stood off to the side of the threshold, waiting anxiously. What on Earth had Dr. Cates told him to elicit such a state from Jervis? He was very shy, but he was very rarely the depressed being she had left alone at her desk. She knew it was none of her business, but that didn't stop her from being curious. She wrung her hands together nervously as she tried to wait patiently. The seconds became minutes, each moment passing making the blonde woman more and more anxious.

"Is he still in there?"

Alice jumped at the sudden voice and whirled around to see Dr. Cates peeking around a corner. She quickly composed herself and nodded. "Yes, he's on the phone…" she replied.

She opened her mouth to ask what was going on, but Dr. Cates disappeared behind the corner just as quickly as she had appeared. Alice's worried blue eyes lingered on the empty hallway for a moment longer before she gazed toward the door beside her. She could still hear the familiar English-accented voice inside, muffled by the door, with frequent pauses in speech. She couldn't hear anything that was being said.

A couple of minutes of silence inside the room passed before Alice ventured to cautiously turn the knob of the door. She poked her head through the small opening and peered over at Jervis.

She found the man sitting at her desk, slouched in her chair with his back to the door. The phone was back on the receiver. His body language just screamed exhaustion and weariness. His hands hung loosely, his arms on the rests of the chair. His head was bowed.

"…Jervis?" Alice risked asking, her voice just above a whisper. She waited for a response, but she received none. She cautiously crept into the office and shut the door behind her as quietly as possible. Her eyes studied the Englishman for a brief moment before she began stepping lightly toward him. She circled the desk, her blue eyes locked on his slouched figure. They widened slightly when she saw his watery eyes, her heart wrenching at the sight. "Jervis?" she asked again.

A silent moment passed before Jervis glanced in her direction, though not directly at her. His eyes remained downcast and kept moving. He visibly swallowed and tried setting his jaw, trying to keep his composure.

Alice stared at him, unsure of what to say. She had never seen him in the state he was in before her; he looked like he was about to break down and start sobbing. She found herself growing emotional just looking at him.

Jervis drew a short breath and held it for a moment. "…my mother passed away this morning," he finally said, the words sounding choked.

Alice's eyes immediately shot wide as a pang of grief went through her. Her breath caught in her throat, her eyes still locked on him as he looked off the other way. "…oh, Jervis…" she began after finding the will to speak. "I'm…" She cautiously laid a shaky hand on his shoulder. "I-I'm so sorry."

She felt him tense beneath her hand and he shied away from her touch, his eyebrows furrowing slightly. Alice lifted her hand and brought it up toward her chest, mildly confused by his reaction. She kept her thoughts on the matter to herself, however, but still tried to find something to say to fill the morbid silence that hung heavy in the air. Try all she might, however, she couldn't find any words. She felt her hand brush a stray blonde lock of hair from her eyes and come to a rest against her cheek.

The man in her chair heaved a weary sigh, his shoulders slumping. "I will be leaving for England tonight," he explained, not once looking at her. "I should be back by the end of the week if things go smoothly."

Alice slowly waved her hands in front of her. "Jervis, take all the time you need," she said quietly. "There is no rush—"

"No, I will _not_ be staying in England for long," Jervis said harshly as his suddenly angry eyes shot to his secretary.

Alice flinched at the rapid change in his demeanor, taking a startled step back. The look in his eyes sent shivers down her spine; beneath that layer of anger was such a pent up expression of pain and sadness that she had never seen in the gentle Englishman.

His expression quickly transformed back into anguish when he saw Alice take that step back. Jervis shut his eyes and brought a trembling hand up to his face. His palm came to a rest on his forehead, his fingers running through his unkempt hair. "I'm sorry, Alice," he whispered. His eyes opened to stare at the typewriter on the desk. "…I…I-I'm just a little…"

"…upset?" Alice offered gently.

The mirthless chuckle that escaped from Jervis startled the blonde girl, catching her completely off guard. She quickly went from worried to alarmed.

"A normal person would be upset, right?" Jervis asked. Whether he was asking Alice the question or just speaking his thoughts, she wasn't sure. She let him keep talking. "I should be feeling more upset…but…but I'm feeling…" he trailed off, leaving Alice in anticipation.

"…feeling?" she pressed.

Jervis swallowed the lump in his throat, his brow furrowing. His hand migrated from his forehead to rest over his mouth. It lingered there for a moment before he looked back up at Alice and took a quivering breath. "…conflicted."

As his eyes quickly darted away from the blonde woman, Alice's eyes fell briefly to the floor by her feet. When she looked back to him, he had his hand against his temple, his eyes closed again. "Conflicted?" she repeated.

The scientist nodded faintly and began nibbling on his bottom lip.

Alice's eyes moved from feature to feature, waiting for him to say something more, to elaborate, but he remained quiet. She just stood in silence, studying the emotional blonde man. Her eyes slowly grew wide as a thought popped into her head, a thought she prayed was false. She felt her jaw go slack as her lips parted slightly, allowing her to breathe through her mouth in shallow breaths. An awful feeling crept over her. "Jervis," she began uneasily, not sure if she had the right to ask the question that she wanted answered, "did she…d-did she _hurt_ you?"

A strained noise that sounded like a mix between a laugh and a sob escaped from Jervis. The hand that hung loosely immediately clenched and his brow creased. His closed eyes tightened, finally allowing a tear to run down his cheek.

"…not in a physical sense, most of the time…" Jervis managed to say, his throat tight.

Alice could feel her own eyes beginning to tear up as Jervis's hand slid down his face, his fingers crossing his nose, and came to a stop over his mouth again, wiping away the wetness across his cheeks along the way. He opened his eyes again, new tears streaming from his eyes, and drew an unsteady breath.

"I owe so much to her," he said quietly. "For being a single working woman, she did so much for me. She helped me get through college…helped me set up here in Gotham… She really was a wonderful woman…" He paused momentarily as his eyebrows fell over his watery eyes. "…but there were so many times when I just wanted to run away from it all. If I wasn't doing something to help her out in the long run, I wouldn't hear from her, wouldn't see her, for days. Imagine…" His eyes lifted to his secretary, who listened to each and every word of his narrative with her full attention. "…a woman and her small child sharing a small home, completely devoid of human contact, _avoiding each other._ When she did decide to see me and I wasn't doing something that would be of any real benefit to her, the insults would start flying… She would say such _horrible_ things…" He trailed off again, his eyes shutting. _"If he had had a more disciplined son, your father would have stayed…"_ he said in an icy voice, something hinting at hatred laced in the words.

Alice could have gasped at the brutal words. She couldn't even imagine her parents saying that to her, let alone any parent saying that to their child. What kind of horrors did this man go through in his past? This was the first he had heard of his history, the first she had heard that his parents were separated, that his mother abused him…he had never talked about it. Whenever they did start discussing their childhoods, Jervis managed to side-step her questions and leave the conversation being strictly about herself. She never understood why he had done so until now.

She was brought back to the present when she heard him take a shaky breath and sniffle.

"I loved her as a mother," he said, his eyes still shut. He tried to choke down a quiet sob that crept up his throat as his eyes tightened, "but I _loathed_ her as a person." He fell silent, lost in the memories of his childhood, of times he held dear and others he felt haunted by. "Part of me _is_ upset that she's…she's gone…" he admitted, having difficulty with the final part, "…b-but another part of me feels…" He swallowed. "Feels…_relieved._"

A moment passed before he opened his eyes and looked at Alice with eyes that held so much pain, so much torment, that it made her want to weep. "What kind of person _says that?_ Me, her own flesh and blood, saying that I'm _relieved _that she's _dead?!"_ He inhaled another shaky breath, his blue eyes slowing lowering from his secretary. "What's wrong with me?"

Jervis's eyes shifted to Alice when he felt her soft fingers wrap around his palm, her other hand lying atop his knuckles. She held his hand firmly in hers, the grip tight, but overwhelmingly comforting. His eyes lifted to her face.

Alice's fingers tightened around his hand when their blue eyes locked. Tears rolled freely down her cheeks without restraint. She gave him a look of honest sympathy, her brow knit into an expression of sadness, but understanding.

That look was all it took. Jervis's eyes shut tight as his tears finally sprang forth and brought his hand up to cover his eyes. His fingers finally tightened around Alice's grasp. No words were spoken between the two. He wept quietly into his hand, the torrent of emotions that raged inside of him gushing forward through his tears.

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A/N: So, I know next to nothing about Jervis Tetch's past. I haven't been able to find anything on his childhood online or elsewhere. I've been thinking a lot about what his childhood might have been like and making my own ideas about it...I will definately elaborate more in _Welcome to Arkham_ at some point, but I wanted to write this now. When I saw a funeral procession the other day, I knew I had to write it.

Thank you for reading. Feedback is always welcome.


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